Crypto Power Plays: The Rise of Crypto in Asia

Author: Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital

Original compilation: 0xjs, Golden Finance

In the past week, I have met with institutional investors and founders in Hong Kong and Singapore, and participated in activities such as the Hong Kong trade delegation organized by Trademissions.org, the Hong Kong Consensus Conference, and a symposium on Web3AI with Amber Group.

Pantera is actively investing in companies in the Asia-Pacific region and is seeking interest in Fund V (a venture capital fund that invests in venture equity, private equity tokens, special opportunities and liquid tokens), which will be launched on June 30, 2025. This week is full and has a lot to reflect on.

The highlight was participating in some of the activities of Traditions ‘visit to Hong Kong and participating in the “LP-GP Fellowship Reception Sponsored by the U.S. Consulate” attended by top family offices and institutions LPs and GPs. The U.S. Consulate held a wonderful event that brought together different groups interested in investing in U.S. companies and funds.

Compared to previous years, I have found that institutional investors ‘interest in cryptocurrencies has changed significantly. Their industry knowledge is deeper and their interests go far beyond Bitcoin investment.

topics of interest

stablecoins and DePin:

Stable coins are a trillion-dollar opportunity that is equally attractive in Asia. Stable coins are practical for many people, and their idea is that issuing stable coins will allow the issuer to gain benefits. There is little interest in tokenized stocks and equity, but there is a lot of interest in the investable portion. Pantera has invested in stablecoin projects such as Ondo and Eco.

Especially now, institutions such as Bank of America are preparing to launch their own dollar-backed stablecoins after the U.S. Congress legalizes them. The volume of transactions processed by stablecoins exceeds US$33 trillion per year, exceeding the combined volume of Visa and Mastercard.

LP is particularly curious about how Pantera can replicate in Asia the growth we have achieved in the U.S. market. With our extensive network, expertise and resources in supporting and investing in stablecoin companies, we can help those launching products in Asian markets succeed.

The DePin (distributed physical infrastructure network) market is still in its infancy and is gradually growing as each new company joins in. In private, there is a lot of discussion about its potential.

I reviewed trends, use cases and success stories, including our portfolio companies Geodnet and Hivemapper, to demonstrate the opportunities.

AI：

AI has always been the top news, especially after DeepSeek. DeepSeek opened the door to many people, showing that high-performance models can be created with modest private investment rather than relying on the public market and huge private investment.

Pantera has invested heavily in this area, funding full-stack projects such as Sahara, open AI such as Sentient, and markets such as Akash. In my conversation with Amber, we discussed a lot about privacy, the additional features consumers want in AI, and AI proxies. Maybe in the future, each of us will have our own set of agents to conduct transactions on the chain at Internet speed. In that future, it is not unreasonable for global transaction volume to increase fivefold.

People are often interested in Pantera’s positioning and exposure in the AI space, and based on our investment history and continued belief that Web3 AI is the future, we are well positioned to invest in companies that will be widely used globally.

AI has extensively promoted more personalization, a value-added feature that has not yet been deeply explored. AI proxies allow users to perform complex operations (such as cross-border payments) using simple commands, which will allow Asian users to leapfrog traditional financial infrastructure and join the Web3 ecosystem.

Legislation:

American legislation is finally beginning to become clear. In Pantera’s recent blockchain newsletter, we highlighted how regulation can shift from headwind to downwind. Given that the U.S. SEC has recently dropped all cases against major U.S. cryptocurrency companies, we are very optimistic about the upcoming U.S. cryptocurrency regulation. Regulatory certainty and supportive management of cryptocurrencies are the foundation of our investment themes this year.

The opening of regulation will undoubtedly allow U.S. cryptocurrency companies to expand into Asia, with Hong Kong as the gateway. Everyone could see the momentum at last week’s Hong Kong Consensus Conference. Hong Kong has been providing increasing support for cryptocurrencies since 2022, launching Asia’s first spot exchange-traded fund and issuing nine virtual asset trading platform (VATP) licenses. Regulators are also actively listening and willing to support the industry through future legislation.

Conclusion:

This time, Asian investors, operators and users are more confident in cryptocurrencies than at any time in the past decade. They want to invest in and build more applications to address the fragmented technologies many people rely on, which can generate revenue, entertainment, travel and payments. stablecoins, AI and legislation are the fundamental reasons why everyone wants to enter the United States, and I am pleased that Pantera, as the long-term manager of the industry, can lead this new wave.

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